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Projected flames and historical scenes, accompanied by sound, now transform the exterior of the Gonzales Memorial Museum as part of a nighttime presentation about the Texas Revolution.
“Texas Legacy in Lights” is a 34-minute film projected onto the museum’s facade. Producer and director John Franklin Rinehart said the presentation focuses on Gonzales’ role in the opening of the Texas Revolution.
The museum, built for the 1936 Texas Centennial, houses the “Come and Take It” cannon associated with the Battle of Gonzales.
The production combines live-action filmmaking with projection mapping, a technique that aligns video with the architectural features of a building.
“We decided to shoot an actual film, live-action film, and project it using multiple cameras, multiple projectors onto an actual architectural building,” Rinehart said.
He compared the technology to “The Saga,” which is projected onto San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio’s Main Plaza, and nighttime projections used at Disney theme parks.
“If anyone’s gone to see the show there in San Antonio at San Fernando Cathedral, or they’ve been to Disney World or Disneyland and they’ve seen the castle light up, you see what’s called projection mapping on the exterior of a building,” he said.
For one scene, the projected images are aligned with the museum’s exterior to make the building appear to catch fire.
“We wanted to make it very immersive,” Rinehart said. “So one of the things that we did was we actually mapped fire to the architecture of the building. So when you’re standing there, you’re all of a sudden watching the building slowly catch on fire.”
The effect prompted an unexpected response during testing.
“We were doing a test of the fire,” he said. “We had people call the fire department because they thought the museum was on fire.”
The free presentation is shown Tuesday through Sunday at 8:25 and 9:15 p.m. through October. From November through March, showtimes are 7:25 and 8:15 p.m.
